“What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all of its children.” John Dewey, The School and Society

In recent years, Fair Lawn’s elementary enrichment has operated as an after-school program. The district paid part of the cost, and families covered the rest. Registration opened on Saturday mornings, and popular classes filled quickly, resulting in waitlists. Participation often depended less on a child’s interest and more on a parent’s schedule, the ability to arrange pickup, or whether the family could pay.

Looking at student participation helped us see things more clearly. Last year, there were almost 800 enrollments, but over 30% of students registered for multiple sessions. That means only about 500 students in grades K-4 benefited. The district spent about $73,000 on a program that families also paid for. This program created real excitement for enrichment in our community, and we wanted to build on it.

So we asked ourselves a simple question: What if we used that money to support every child?

This year, enrichment is part of the regular school day. Now, every kindergarten, first, and second grade student, almost 1,100 children, gets hands-on STEM lessons in their own classroom. Instructors from Little Ivy Academy and Mad Science teach these lessons. Each grade has six one-hour lessons. Kindergartners learn about forces and basic chemistry through demonstrations and experiments. First graders build and code robots that move and react to their environment. Second graders take a six-lesson chemistry series about lab work, chemical reactions, and states of matter. At Milnes, more than 200 students are now taking part, which is more than twice as many as last year. The same lessons now reach every K-2 classroom in all six elementary schools.

Families pay nothing. There is no registration, no waitlist, and no Saturday morning scramble. This year, about $60,000 provides enrichment to every K-2 student, reaching more children with more instruction.

We made a deliberate choice of depth over breadth. Rather than spreading fewer lessons across five grades, we put more lessons into three. We chose the early grades because that is where interest was highest, and because teaching science and computational thinking from kindergarten to second grade helps us build on students’ natural curiosity at the right time. Curiosity at ages five, six, and seven becomes a strong base for future learning. Enrichment is often where a child first discovers what they love. In my doctoral research, I found that hands-on, inquiry-based science improved student performance, especially for students who are often underestimated. Students in grades three and four will still experience STEM units taught by our district staff.

After-school options are still available. The Fair Lawn Community School continues to offer tuition-based programs, and we have invited our former enrichment vendors to teach classes there. Several have already signed on.

Our families’ strong support for enrichment in recent years has made one thing clear: Fair Lawn truly values these experiences, and every child should have them. Equity is not a slogan. It shapes every spending decision we make. As a first-generation American whose parents worked in a factory, I know that opportunity often comes down to luck. Our children should not have to rely on luck. If a child’s chance depends on their family’s means or schedule, we are not where we want to be. When every child has the same chance to build, code, test, and wonder, we get closer to what schools could be.